The present invention relates to magnetic recording media, particularly rotatable magnetoresistance (MR) or giant magnetoresistance (GMR) recording media, such as thin film magnetic disks cooperating with a magnetic transducer head. The present invention has particular applicability to high areal density magnetic recording media designed for drive programs having reduced flying height, or pseudo-contact/proximity recording.
Thin film magnetic recording disks and disk drives are conventionally employed for storing large amounts of data in magnetizable form. In operation, a typical contact start/stop (CSS) method commences when a data transducing head begins to slide against the surface of the disk as the disk begins to rotate. Upon reaching a predetermined high rotational speed, the head floats in air at a predetermined distance from the surface of the disk where it is maintained during reading and recording operations. Upon terminating operation of the disk drive, the head again begins to slide against the surface of the disk and eventually stops in contact with and pressing against the disk. Each time the head and disk assembly is driven, the sliding surface of the head repeats the cyclic operation consisting of stopping, sliding against the surface of the disk, floating in the air, sliding against the surface of the disk and stopping.
For optimum consistency and predictability, it is necessary to maintain each transducer head as close to its associated recording surface as possible, i.e., to minimize the flying height of the head. Accordingly, a smooth recording surface is preferred, as well as a smooth opposing surface of the associated transducer head. However, if the head surface and the recording surface are too smooth, the precision match of these surfaces gives rise to excessive stiction and friction during the start up and stopping phases, thereby causing wear to the head and recording surfaces, eventually leading to what is referred to as a xe2x80x9chead crash.xe2x80x9d Thus, there are competing goals of reduced head/disk friction and minimum transducer flying height.
Conventional practices for addressing these apparent competing objectives involve providing a magnetic disk with a roughened recording surface to reduce the head/disk friction by techniques generally referred to as xe2x80x9ctexturing.xe2x80x9d Conventional texturing techniques involve mechanical polishing or laser texturing the surface of a disk substrate to provide a texture thereon prior to subsequent deposition of layers, such as an underlayer, a magnetic layer, a protective overcoat, and a lubricant topcoat, wherein the textured surface on the substrate is intended to be substantially replicated in the subsequently deposited layers. The surface of an underlayer can also be textured, and the texture substantially replicated in subsequently deposited layers.
Conventional longitudinal recording media typically comprise a substrate, such as aluminum (Al) or an Al alloy, e.g., aluminum-magnesium (Alxe2x80x94Mg) alloy, plated with a layer or amorphous nickel-phosphorus (NiP). Alternative substrates include glass, ceramic, glass-ceramic, and polymeric materials and graphite. The substrate typically contains sequentially deposited on each side thereof at least an underlayer, such as chromium (Cr) or a Cr alloy, e.g., chromium vanadium (CrV), a cobalt (Co)xe2x80x94based alloy magnetic layer, a protective overcoat typically containing carbon, and a lubricant. The underlayer, magnetic layer and protective overcoat, are typically sputter deposited in an apparatus containing sequential deposition chambers. A conventional Al-alloy substrate is provided with a NiP plating, primarily to increase the hardness of the Al substrate, serving as a suitable surface to provide a texture, which is substantially reproduced on the disk surface.
In accordance with conventional practices, a lubricant topcoat is uniformly applied over the protective overcoat to prevent wear between the disk and head interface during drive operation. Excessive wear of the protective overcoat increases friction between the head and disk, thereby causing catastrophic drive failure. Excess lubricant at the head-disk interface causes high stiction between the head and disk. If stiction is excessive, the drive cannot start and catastrophic failure occurs. Accordingly, the lubricant thickness must be optimized for stiction and friction.
A conventional material employed for the lubricant topcoat comprises a perfluro polyether (PFPE) which consists essentially of carbon, fluorine and oxygen atoms. The lubricant is typically dissolved in an organic solvent, applied and bonded to the carbon overcoat of the magnetic recording medium by techniques such as dipping, buffing, thermal treatment, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and soaking. A significant factor in the performance of a lubricant topcoat is the bonded lube ratio which is the ratio of the amount of lubricant bonded directly to the carbon overcoat of the magnetic recording medium to the amount of lubricant bonded to itself or to a mobile lubricant. Desirably, the bonded lube ratio should be between 0.3 to 0.7 (e.g. about 0.5 (50%)) to realize a meaningful improvement in stiction and wear performance of the resulting magnetic recording medium.
The escalating requirements for high areal recording density impose increasingly greater requirements on thin film magnetic recording media in terms of coercivity, stiction, squareness, medium noise and narrow track recording performance. In addition, increasingly high areal recording density and large capacity magnetic disks require smaller flying heights, i.e., the distance by which the head floats above the surface of the disk in the CSS drive (head-disk interface). For conventional media design, a decrease in the head to media spacing increases stiction and drive crash, thereby imposing an indispensable role on the carbon-protective overcoat.
There are various types of carbon, some of which have been employed for a protective overcoat in manufacturing a magnetic recording medium. Such types of carbon include hydrogenated carbon, graphitic carbon or graphite, and nitrogenated carbon or carbon nitride and hydrogenated-nitrogenated carbon. These types of carbon are well known in the art and, hence, not set forth herein in great detail.
Generally, hydrogenated carbon or amorphous hydrogenated carbon has a hydrogen concentration of about 5 at. % to abut 40 at. %, typically about 20 at. % to about 30 at. %. Hydrogenated carbon has a lower conductivity due to the elimination of the carbon band-gap states by hydrogen. Hydrogenated carbon also provides effective corrosion protection to an underlying magnetic layer. Amorphous carbon nitride, sometimes referred to as nitrogenated carbon, generally has a nitrogen to hydrogen concentration ration of about 5:20 to about 30:0. Hydrogenated-nitrogenated carbon generally has a hydrogen to nitrogen concentration ration of about 30:10 to 20:10 (higher concentration of hydrogen than nitrogen). Amorphous (a) hydrogen-nitrogenated carbon can be represented by the formula axe2x80x94CH,Ny, wherein xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d is about 0.05 (5.0 at. %) to about 0.20 (20 at. %), such as about 0.1 (10 at. %) to about 0.2 (20 at. %), and xe2x80x9cyxe2x80x9d about 0.03 (3.0 at. %) to about 0.30 (30 at. %), such as about 0.03 (3.0 at. %) to about 0.07 (7.0 at. %). A particularly suitable composition is axe2x80x94CH .15N.05. Graphitic carbon or graphite contains substantially no hydrogen and nitrogen.
Patel et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,736, disclose a magnetic recording medium comprising a barrier layer, having a thickness of 0.5 to 10 micro-inches between a magnetic layer and protective oxide layer. Opfer et al., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,610,911 and 4,631,202, disclose a magnetic recording medium comprising a Cr barrier layer having a thickness of 100 xc3x85 to 600 xc3x85 between a magnetic layer and protective oxide coating. Hiwatashi, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,562,982 and 5,679,454, disclose a magnetic recording medium containing a Cr buffer layer, having a thickness of 100 xc3x85 to 200 xc3x85, between a magnetic layer and a hydrogen-containing carbon protective layer. Suzuki et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,844, disclose a magnetic recording medium comprising a first-protective film of Cr having a thickness of 29 xc3x85 to 150 xc3x85 on a magnetic layer, and a second protective film containing particles dispersed in an inorganic oxide film. Makino et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,674, disclose a magnetic recording medium comprising a Cr protective layer, having a thickness of 40 xc3x85 to 2000 xc3x85, between a magnetic layer and an oxide film. Yamashita et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,500, disclose a magnetic recording medium containing a protective zirconium film having a thickness of 100 xc3x85 to 600 xc3x85.
It was found, however, that the magnetic properties of a conventional magnetic layer deteriorated upon sputter depositing a protective overcoat in a nitrogen-containing atmosphere., as when depositing a protective overcoat containing carbon and nitrogen. Accordingly, there exists a need for methodology enabling the manufacture of a magnetic recording medium containing a magnetic layer and a protective overcoat containing carbon and nitrogen without degradation of magnetic and parametric properties of the magnetic layer as a result of applying the protective overcoat.
An advantage of the present invention is a magnetic recording medium comprising a protective overcoat containing carbon and nitrogen wherein the magnetic layer has not undergone degradation of its magnetic or parametric properties due to deposition of the protective overcoat.
Another advantage of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a magnetic recording medium, the method comprising sputter depositing a protective overcoat containing carbon and nitrogen in a nitrogen-containing atmosphere on a magnetic layer without degrading the magnetic or parametric properties of the magnetic layer.
Additional advantages and other features of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary school in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from the practice of the present invention. The advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other advantages are achieved in part by a magnetic recording medium comprising: a magnetic layer; a barrier layer on the magnetic layer; and a protective overcoat, containing carbon and nitrogen, on the barrier layer.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a magnetic recording medium, the method comprising: sputter depositing a barrier layer on a magnetic layer; and sputter depositing a protective overcoat, containing carbon and nitrogen, on the barrier layer in a nitrogen-containing atmosphere.
Embodiments of the present invention comprise sputter depositing a non-metallic or metallic, e.g., Cr or Cr alloy, layer at a thickness of about 5 xc3x85 to about 25 xc3x85 on a magnetic layer and sputter depositing an amorphous nitrogenated carbon or amorphous hydrogenated-nitrogenated carbon protective overcoat on the magnetic layer in an atmosphere containing at least 0.025 volume % nitrogen.
Additional advantages of the invention will become readily apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description, wherein the embodiments of the present invention are described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention. As will be realized, the present invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.